


Thanksgiving

by Treon



Category: The Americans (TV 2013)
Genre: Family time, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-02 23:16:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treon/pseuds/Treon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanksgiving by the Jennings</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thanksgiving

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the oven door.  The turkey was finally in the oven.  They were an American family and Elizabeth was going to make the essential American Thanksgiving meal: stuffed turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, the works.  
  
Philip, of course, loved it all.  Not that he did much to help. Right now he was standing by the counter, paging through the newspaper.  
  
She took a look at the clock. She was running late. Grabbing a recipe book, she pulled a stool over to the counter.  She had planned to do some of the preparations the previous day, but work - travel agency work - kept both her and Philip in the office till well past midnight. They were lucky there was no sudden emergency work from Moscow. She could deal with whatever was thrown at her, they could deal with it, but it would have ruined the kids' Thanksgiving. And it would have been awkward to explain, to both the kids and the neighbors.  
  
"Mom," Paige came in, "why don't we have more family coming?"  
  
Elizabeth looked up from the recipe book. "Because we don't have a big family. You know that."  
  
"It's so unfair," Paige pouted, "Jennifer's having thirty people over."  
  
Even if they were living in a normal situation, Elizabeth couldn't see herself making turkey for thirty people. How long had they been preparing for this one day? "Jennifer's parents are crazy."  
  
Philip smiled at his daughter. "When you grow up and get married, you might appreciate not having your in-laws around," he joked.  
  
But Paige wasn't consoled so easily. "It's still not fair."  All her friends were showing off about their big family celebrations, and she was the only who didn't have even one grandfather to speak of.  No uncles, not aunts, no cousins.   
  
"Life's unfair."  Elizabeth focused on the recipe in front of her and tried to ignore them all.  She knew they had to keep up appearances, but standing in the kitchen making food she hated for a holiday she couldn't stand hadn't been part of the KGB's recruitment spiel.   
  
Henry came into the kitchen, jumping with excitement. "I love Thanksgiving!" He grabbed an apple from the counter, only to have Elizabeth grab it back. "Dad, you're coming?" The TV was loud enough to hear in the kitchen. "Game's about to start."  
  
Elizabeth shook her head. "Nothing like a game to celebrate Western colonialism."  She hadn't meant to say it out-loud.   
  
Henry's eyes opened wide.  Philip opened his mouth to smooth things over, but before he could say anything, Henry piped up.  "Hey Mom, this is Thanksgiving. We should all be thankful." He sounded like he was parroting his schoolteacher, which made Elizabeth hate this holiday even more.   
  
"Of course we're thankful."  She turned to the refrigerator to start gathering up the ingredients for her next project.  
  
Henry wasn't about to let it go, though.  "What are  _you_ thankful for, Mom?"  
  
Elizabeth didn't feel like joining this game.  "I'll be thankful if the turkey doesn't burn."  
  
Paige turned to her father.  "What about you, Dad?"  
  
Philip didn't think much about it.  "I'm thankful we have peace."  
  
Elizabeth glared at him. He always had to one-up her.  
  
"Peace, Dad?" Paige rolled her eyes. "We don't have peace."  
  
"We're not at war. And we're all together, no matter what happens, right guys?" He gave Henry a big hug.  
  
Elizabeth stopped her work just long enough to exchange a glance with Philip.  She didn't need America to tell her what to do, but there  _were_ some things she was thankful for.   
  
"Come on, guys," Philip opened the door out from the kitchen, directing the kids to troop out.  "We've got TV watching to do, right? And we want to give your mother some peace and quiet."


End file.
